


It's Time to Addle our Brains with Madness

by sigrundora



Category: Angel: the Series, Leverage, Mark Sheppard - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crack, Dimension Travel, Gen, Heist, Multiple Crossovers, Multiplicity/Plurality, Wolfram & Hart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-11
Updated: 2013-03-11
Packaged: 2017-12-05 01:00:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/717058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sigrundora/pseuds/sigrundora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Angel needs to steal an artifact from the W&H vaults to prevent an apocalypse, he turns to the only guy he knows who knows the W&H HQ building like the back of his hands. </p>
<p>Lindsey McDonald left L.A. after the "evil hand issue", moved away and got a new identity. Now someone from his past needs his expertise so he takes his new friends on a trip to L.A. to meet with people he once knew well and people who can help him achieve what he was asked to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Time to Addle our Brains with Madness

**Author's Note:**

> written for apocalypsebang over at LJ  
> art by pyalgroundblz  
> beta by sweet_lyri
> 
> THIS IS CRACK :D
> 
> Also, Angel 3rd season AU and AU-ish in seasons 3 or 4 of Leverage

This was too big for them.

There was no way that he and the others could pull this off. Not when he was Wolfram and Hart’s main reason for existing, or so it seemed sometimes. No, for this he would need some help. 

Wesley, Fred and Gunn were all excellent in what they did, but now he needed someone who did this for a living. Someone who knew what it meant going up against that law firm. Someone who had once been in their clutches but had managed to escape, go into hiding and stay hidden for years. 

Sure, they had their differences in the past, but he hoped that they could bury the past for the time needed to finish this job. 

He had no idea how he was going to contact him, but he was going to do everything he could in making sure that Lindsey McDonald would come back. 

They needed him.

***

"We have a case," Eliot said as he dropped a folder on the table.

“What is it?” Parker had been getting antsy with the lack of jobs, so anything was preferable to idle hands.

“A guy out in L.A. has asked us for help. Don’t know much else about it. It’s all there in the file.”

While Eliot was known to be noncommittal, this was surely taking the cake. At least before, he had told him how he knew the people or how they had helped him in the past. But now? Now all they got were three sentences and a file that was emptier than Latin class during Mardi Gras.

“I'll let you know when our flight is when I get the details. Guy’s already paid, so go pack your bags.” Eliot left for his apartment and left the others more puzzled than before he walked in.

Parker opened the file and stared. There was only one sheet of paper in it with the absolute barest minimum of information on it:

Mark: W&H   
Expertise needed: Scaling buildings – inside and out, breaking in past numerous alarms – all varieties, pretending to be a high class lawyer/client, retrieval of classified objects  
Location: Los Angeles  
Accommodation will be provided  
Further information given on arrival

She passed it around the table and when each of them had finished reading, they all wore the same look of confusion on their faces.

“What do you think ‘all varieties’ means?” Hardison asked.

“It won’t even say what it is we’re stealing!” Parker exclaimed.

“At least they gave enough info for the five of us,” Sophie commented.

“I’ve seen the name of the firm somewhere before…” Nate mused.

“How do you know it’s a firm?” Parker asked.

“Well, it’s not likely to be a person, is it? Not when stated like that,” Sophie injected. “What I’d like to know why the client contacted Eliot and not Nate.”

“They must know him from somewhere,” Parker replied. “Otherwise they would have called Nate since he’s the Mastermind.”

“Like, is all varieties infrared lasers and thermo-sensitive atmosphere and such?” Hardison was still puzzling over the wording.

“Or it could be dogs too!” Parker sounded excited.

“DOGS?!? Please don’t be dogs…” Hardison had not forgotten that time when they helped Hurley and had to retrieve his car from the impound lot.

***

No matter how often they tried to reach Eliot, through phone calls or text messages, they never got an answer. The only proof they got that they actually had a case was a terse text message giving them the time, date and flight number of their flight out to Los Angeles.

Because they didn’t receive any other information they were not sure what to pack for their trip.

“Hey, Sophie?”

“Yes, Parker?” Sophie answered distracted by her packing.

“What are you taking with you?”

“Well, since we are going to Los Angeles and we might meet some celebrities, I’m taking dresses. A lot of dresses; some suits for the con and my bikini. I am determined to hit the beach at Malibu at least once while we are there. Why do you ask?”

“Well, Hardison is taking USB sticks, his laptop, tablet, extra phone and a remote of some sort. He’s also gonna work on the ear-buds he said, so he’s taking some wires or something. And Nate said he’s taking suits…and some hats and I was wondering if I should take something else besides my ‘chute, my abseiling stuff, my rig and zip-line and my hooks?” Parker looked perplexed and deep in thought. She was obviously trying to figure out if she had forgotten something.

“You’re not taking any clothes?” Sophie was astonished.

“I knew I had forgotten something!” she pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil, “two pairs of black pants, two black jackets, three tee shirts” she muttered as she wrote it down.

“You’re only bringing two other outfits!” Sophie knew Parker was different, but this was really taking the cake. She had never believed people like that existed.

“You mean I need more?” Parker really didn’t see the point in bringing more clothes with her. What she had written down could last her for up to three weeks, if she didn’t spill anything. Why Sophie insisted on bringing tons of suitcases with her on every out-of-town con would forever be a mystery to her.

“What if the con needs us to go to a party?” Sophie hoped they would need to go to some gala party, preferably one with actors or famous directors. She knew that she could take Hollywood by storm if she only got the chance.

“Well, I figured that’s what you’re for.” Parker suddenly remembered that there were plenty of jewellery stores all on one street…it would be fun to visit those and if she had to go to a party, one of the ones that Sophie liked so much, then she wouldn’t have time to visit those stores.

Sophie just shook her head. There was nothing she could say to that.

***

When they met Eliot at the airport, they did a double take. Well, Nate, Sophie and Hardison did. Parker didn’t even notice him.

“You cut your hair!” Sophie exclaimed.

“Why are we stopping?” Parker was confused, she thought they were looking for Eliot and here the team stopped to talk to some lawyer-type. She continued to scan the area for Eliot. She was sure she would recognize him anywhere. He was a burly, athletic type who wore lots of plaid after all and this was Logan International, not a lot of rednecks here.

“Parker,” Nate’s voice held a touch of exasperation, with a hint of resignation, they were used to her attention span, “Eliot’s here.”

“Oh! He is? Where? I don’t see him.” She craned her neck to see above the mass of people milling around the departures area. She was somewhat distracted though, as her eyes kept straying to the lawyer. He was good looking.

“Don’t worry, she’ll get there eventually,” Eliot said good-naturedly. He was used to his friend’s peculiarities. “You ready?” he asked them and when they nodded he walked them over to the check-in area. “Let me handle this,” he said as they were called up. He then proceeded to hand over various documents to the girl working the desk and suddenly they all had tickets to first class in their hands and a pass to show at the executive lounge entrance while they waited for their plane.

“We really need you to handle our travel arrangements more,” Sophie said appreciatively.

“Client paid for it. Insisted on it, really,” Eliot muttered, looking sideways at Hardison.

Hardison caught the look and put two and two together, or so he thought. Eliot had learnt things from him after all. Hardison had never been too sure that anything went through that thick skull except some distinctive sounds, haircuts and fighting styles.

“You know, you kinda remind me of someone.” Parker leaned over the armrest towards Eliot. He had arranged for them to sit together and apart from the rest of the team. Hardison was at the back of the compartment, while Nate and Sophie sat at the front. The team was nicely spread out over first class. He had made some excuse that this way was the only way they had gotten their seats, but in all honesty it was because he found Parker’s company restful. Sophie would have bugged him about Los Angeles, Nate would have drilled him about their client and the mark and Hardison would have interrogated him on all other things. What he hadn’t taken into account was the way Parker was … flirting with him. He would have put her with Hardison had he known the effect his haircut would have on his friend. He didn’t even think of her that way!

“Parker!” Eliot said with exasperation in his voice, “It’s me, Eliot!”

“You sure? Eliot has longer hair” Parker wasn’t ready to believe that this hot stranger was her friend. 

“Yes, I’m sure. I taught you how to do the Macarena when you had asked me thirty-six times to do so.” Eliot so did not want to remember that time, but he didn’t know what else would convince her it was really him.

“Oh? Why did you cut your hair?” She looked crestfallen.

“For the duration of this con, my name is Lindsey McDonald and I’m a lawyer. Lawyers generally don’t have long hair.” There was a nostalgic look in his eyes. That is, you’d see it if looked close enough. Parker was still focusing on his hair.

“Well, I like you with short hair. Can I play your girlfriend?” She sounded way too excited for his peace of mind.

Eliot looked around the compartment when he heard the flight attendants give the ‘close doors and report’ command. The sixth member of their merry band of thieves should be on the plane with them. He had managed to give him a seat in first class as well, but didn’t know the seat number as they weren’t assigned when he booked the flights, but rather when one checked in. He stood up under the excuse of looking for something in the overhead bin and when he got ready to sit down again, he saw someone nod at him from three rows back. He looked towards where Hardison was sitting, but thankfully he was engrossed in some magazine and hadn’t noticed the exchange.

“We’ll see,” was the only thing he said to Parker as he sat back down, “if that situation comes up, we can look into it.”

***

Halfway through the flight, when his teammates had all fallen asleep, Eliot went to the front of the plane to the first class lounge.

“Good that you made it,” he said to the man who was waiting for him.

“Figured I should be there, what with my connection to the place and all,” his companion said.

“So you’re meeting the others in Los Angeles?” Eliot asked.

“Yes. He’s pulling out all the stops and getting them from all over.” The other man shrugged, as if what they were dealing with was an everyday occurrence.

“Don’t think Nate and the others would handle it well, seeing you on the plane…” Eliot knew that the other man understood the half-spoken sentence.

“I’m on it,” he said and left for his seat.

Eliot stayed behind for a few seconds, thinking about what lay ahead and what lay behind him. Things that he had hoped were buried so far behind him in the past. Things that had been buried so well that neither Nate, who knew a lot a bout him, nor Hardison, who was very good at sticking his nose where it didn’t belong, knew anything about the person he had been and the person he was being forced to be again in a few short hours. Eliot was determined not to think of Lindsey McDonald until the plane had landed at LAX. He was going to relish being Eliot Spencer for the rest of the flight. Being Lindsey again would take everything he had and he wouldn’t have any relief until they were done with the job and back on their way to Boston again. There was a reason why he had left Lindsey behind…just like there was a reason why he had become Lindsey in the first place.

***

A bespectacled man in a sweater west was holding a sign for them in arrivals. Everyone but Eliot and Parker were puzzled why the sign said ‘Lindsey McDonald’, but figured that it had something to do with Eliot when the two men shook hands.

“Guys, this is Wesley, Wesley, these are the guys; Nate, Sophie, Parker and Hardison” Eliot said as he pointed towards each of his friends.

“How do you do?” Wes asked.

Sophie was thrilled to hear that Wes was British like her. It was nice to find compatriots on this side of the pond, compatriots who were in some way, in the same field as she was, by the look of things.

“The van is outside,” Wes said as he motioned them to follow him outside.

“A van?” Eliot’s voice held a hint of incredulity. “Since when does he operate a van?”

“Since after you left,” Wes replied, “things have changed, Lindsey. If they hadn’t we wouldn’t need your help now.”

Wes herded them into a black van with darkened window panes. Parker thought it was pretty cool, while Hardison wondered what drugs Angelinos were on these days. This was one funky ride, what with the mounted lumber they had on the driver’s side. Lumber that looked somewhat like giant spikes. 

Only Eliot understood the necessity of the dark windows.

“Nice to see he’s got himself a ride,” he mumbled as he settled into the front seat. The others had left it to him, as he knew Wes and knew what was really happening.

“This was Gunn’s idea,” Wes replied succinctly, “Cordy and Fred wanted a logo on the side.”

“Fred? Is he a new lackey?” 

“ **She** is a new employee of A.I. We rescued her from Lorne’s home. She had been stuck there for five years and was living in a cave in order to stay away from the natives who would have treated her like a slave had they caught her.” Wes didn’t know if Lindsey’s friends knew much about other dimensions, so he kept his tale as noncommittal as possible, but with enough information for Lindsey to understand the situation.

“Wow, poor girl,” Sophie commented from the back seat. “What is that place called?”

“Pylea. It’s…not around here,” Wes answered uneasily.

“Is it in the Pacific?” Hardison had his mobile computer unit out, determined to look it up on the internet. That might be their next case. He was going to suggest it to Nate after this one was done. A place that treated girls like slaves was surely their kind of case. And he definitely deserved to run a job, since Eliot seemed to be running this one.

“You...uh…you won’t find it on the internet. It’s very small,” Eliot answered when he saw the uneasiness on Wes’ face, “I don’t think they even have an internet code,” he knew that that piece of information would shut Hardison up. He was always perplexed at places that didn’t have internet codes.

The rest of the ride to their destination was spent in relative silence. That is to say that Wes and Eliot were silent; the others were murmuring in the back about what a horrid place Pylea must be, with the no internet and treating girls as slaves. 

Eliot was reminding himself to mention to the team the fact that he would only respond to the name ‘Lindsey’ for the duration of the job. He needed to do it before they met the man who had hired them for this job. And wouldn’t that meeting be a difficult one…

***

“The mark is a firm named ‘Wolfram & Hart’, they’re a bunch of evil lawyers.” The sad dark haired guy looked especially hard at Eliot when he said that. Why he did, Parker had no idea, but she was down with getting the best of lawyers – those were annoying most of the time.

The sad dark haired guy continued, “These lawyers have various tricks up their sleeves and don’t hesitate to use them to if it gets them the advantage over you. Be prepared for anything, even if it might be a little bit hard to believe. They are ruthless and don’t take any prisoners.”

Parker liked this dude. She hoped that they would work with him again, because he knew how to present a case. He wasn’t like Nate, or Evil Nate and he didn’t cover his words in lot of stuff like Sophie did sometimes. He was a bit like Eliot in a way.

“They have, in their vaults in the basement of their building, an artifact that can be used to cause a great amount of destruction if they do what they intend to do with it. We need to get to it before Thursday and destroy it correctly. That is why I asked you here. I cannot get into the building as they know me and have made security precautions. Lindsey is familiar with the layout and can help you get to the right place, but he can’t get in there either. Nate and Sophie will need to get into the offices, posing as a couple that need lawyers and were referred to Wolfram and Hart by their local branch; I have the paperwork all done for that. They will need to gain access to the computers for Hardison to hack into the system – I warn you, you haven’t seen anything like it, so Fred will help you with that. That leaves Parker. You get the toughest job, as you will be the one to steal the artifact from the vault. They will have the state of the art security measures in the vault and also some you’ve never imagined, but that’s why Wes and I are here. Gunn and Lindsey will be our backup should anything go wrong.”

“When do we start?” Parker thought Nate was a bit uncomfortable giving this guy the control, but Eliot had said that they should trust the brooding guy because he was an expert in the type of case they were about to get. Parker had no problem in having him as her boss, but she thought that Nate wanted to say his ‘Let’s go steal…’ thing and he couldn’t because they didn’t really know what they were stealing and he wasn’t the mastermind so he couldn’t say it. She sort of hoped that the guy would say it, just so Nate would be comfortable in the situation.

“We start tomorrow, that gives us four days.”

“Let’s go steal us a secret thingamajig” Parker said with glee in her voice. The rest of her crew just shook their heads.

***

Eliot felt uncomfortable being back in Los Angeles and in the vicinity of his old employers. Especially since he was working with Angel and he knew what a close eye the firm kept on the vampire. He had felt that eye on him often enough in the past, when he was still Lindsey McDonald. And speaking of vampires, how was he going to explain to the team that the mastermind for this case was a supernatural being who was more than two hundred years old?

Eliot knew that Parker and Hardison would go with the flow, they were that kind of people, but Nate and Sophie were a totally different ballgame. He wasn’t sure if they would really believe him, or if they would believe Angel if he told them the truth and showed them his fangs. They might just think he was one of the “alternative lifestyle” people that lived in the city. Eliot wasn’t sure if Sophie wouldn’t just think of Angel that way, Nate might become a believer if he saw the fangs. Those fangs were sort of cool.

Eliot stood by the travel section of the library and wondered why the hell they wanted to meet there. It was fucking ridiculous. But standing there for the past ten minutes had made up his resolve of taking a vacation after this job. He had more than earned it and it looked like Scandinavia and the other Nordic countries were a cool place to visit in the summer.

“Spencer,” came the raspy voice he knew so well.

“Sterling,” he said as he glanced up, “I see you’ve managed to get in touch with the others.” He nodded towards the two men that were with Sterling. Both were identical to the Interpol agent, but totally different at the same time.

“This is Romo,” Sterling indicated the man with the sunglasses, “And this is Crowley,” he pointed towards the one with the two-day beard. It was nice to be able to tell them apart. Although, the Crowley guy could totally pass as Sterling since they both wore expertly tailored suits. Crowley apparently favored the dark end of the color spectrum while Sterling liked the lighter end. Romo wore a long blue coat and sort of reminded Eliot of Keanu Reeves’ character from the Matrix.

“Hello,” Eliot said uncomfortably, because, how would you act when you were faced with two identical copies of the man you had professed to hate in front of your team? A man who would be helping them now as he, and all his copies, had insider knowledge of Wolfram & Hart and knew exactly what they were getting into. They had been, after all, cloned by the senior partners and sent out into different dimensions to report for the firm. Sterling had been sent after Eliot, but had decided to stop reporting on his actual whereabouts after a short while and an intense discussion between the two of them.

“Crowley is a demon and Romo is from outer space.” The funny thing was that there was not a hint of smile on Sterling’s face. This was all too common of an occurrence when you were in the orbit of Wolfram & Hart and the senior partners. 

“Badger and Valda will be getting here soon. Badger is from a different space dimension than Romo and Valda is from a dimension like ours where he deals with supernatural things. Sort of like Crowley.” Eliot was not really looking forward to four extra copies of Sterling. 

“Oh and Canton will be here as soon as he can. He’s from a dimension exactly like ours, but he exists in the late sixties and knows a guy who likes to time travel.” Make that FIVE extra copies. But Eliot figured that whatever they were about to steal was really big, since Sterling had contacted all those copies of himself.

“So, why the travel section?” Eliot tried to sound nonchalant.

“These two are interested in travelling around this dimension, even though Crowley’s is exactly the same.” Sterling said with a tiny hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“Mine is EXACTLY the same. It’s Romo who wants to travel, which is totally understandable given how he’s been cooped up in a starship for months after Wolfram & Hart had the machines blow up his home planets.” Crowley said with thinly veiled derision in his voice. “I’m stuck in this world tailing after two pretty boys who don’t really know what they’re doing except making things difficult for me. I’ve seen too many seedy motels across America to last me a couple of lifetimes and would not mind seeing something else, so I signed up for Romo’s epic trip.” It seemed that Crowley did not care much for Sterling. 

This could get interesting.

“Angel’s divided the jobs between the teams. I got back-up with Gunn, who seems to be Angel’s muscle man. Parker got the actual job of stealing the artifact with Angel and Wesley as helpers. Fred and Hardison got the hacking and Nate and Sophie got the grifting.” Eliot tried to hide his anxiety of being in such close proximity to his old employers. People who didn’t hesitate to remove someone from this plane of existence if it was more convenient for them to have somebody dead than alive. After all, he had done some things that might garner him that fate if the senior partners so chose.

“He’s a smart cookie that one,” Romo said. Apparently all the Sterling copies knew of or about Angel. Eliot figured that it was only fair, since it seemed that Wolfram & Hart’s whole existence seemed to hang on what Angel did at that last apocalypse, whenever that might happen. Eliot just hoped that he wouldn’t be anywhere near Los Angeles or Angel when that time came. He was fairly confident that they would be able to avert this coming one since they had the best thief in this world on their side. And all these copies of the senior partners’ baby.

***

Sterling shook his head. It was strange to be surrounded by all these copies of himself. He considered them to be that, since he was the first one cloned from the original. He knew that Crowley did not share his sentiments as Crowley was the second copy. Sometimes Sterling thought that they really should have stopped at one, for the later copies all had their little faults. There was Romo and his kleptomania, Badger and his…bizarreness, Crowley and the megalomania. Sterling figured that Valda was a decent copy, only some very slight defects and Canton…well, Sterling sort of envied Canton since he was the only copy that was openly gay.

This was not the first time he met the others. Since he was the first copy, he had been there at the creation of all the others and heard the talk about creating even more copies, but thankfully the senior partners of Wolfram & Hart had stopped at six copies. He wondered what sort of defects the rest of them would have had if they had created more.

He looked over at Eliot and tried to imagine what the other man was going through, seeing these duplicates of Sterling. Their acquaintance was special enough that this must really be some shock to Eliot. Sterling just hoped that they would be OK after this job was over.

***

“How did the meeting go?” Angel got straight to the point. Admittedly, Eliot thought, he didn’t really need to listen to Sophie and Nate talk about the interior of headquarters, he had obviously been there often enough himself.

“Lord, the lawyer we talked to was the most kiss-ass-y person I’ve ever been so unfortunate to meet,” Sophie exclaimed. Eliot thought that that was saying something, as Sophie was an expert grifter and had med her fair share of kiss-ass-y people.

“Ah, so you met with Gavin. Yes, he’s annoying but not really the sharpest tool around Wolfram & Hart. I think they only hired him because of his blind trust in the senior partners.” The tone in Angel’s voice wasn’t the most pleasant. “Now, we would have been in trouble had you met with Lilah.” Eliot thought he detected some admiration in Angel’s voice despite all that they had gone through, well all that Eliot knew of, something big must have happened after he left.

“Yeah, he struck me as an easy mark. We have another appointment with him tomorrow, we’ll try to get him to leave his precious computer for long enough so Sophie can plug in the USB stick Hardison is preparing.” Nate sounded like he felt uncomfortable not being in the driver’s seat, but there was nothing Eliot could do to alleviate his discomfort. This was not really their case, they were only here to assist Angel in his plans as the firm had way too good vampire detection security measures and everybody there apparently knew Angel’s team inside out.

Angel nodded and Eliot knew he was glad that they were on schedule. He was glad as well. The sooner they reached their goal and had the artifact, the sooner Eliot could leave and not look back. Looking back had never been a smart thing to do in Eliot’s life and he wasn’t about to break his tradition any time soon. After all, nothing was accomplished by always looking back. You had to look forward to make progress, and that’s one of the few things Eliot really cared about.

***

“What do you mean ‘He is a vampire’?” Parker sounded genuinely perplexed at Eliot’s news.

“Just that. Angel is a vampire,” came the simple reply.

“Cool!” Eliot wasn’t surprised by Hardison’s reaction; the guy was really into that kind of stuff. “So what’s his story?”

“He’s originally Irish. Got turned by this chick named Darla. They ran around Europe and Asia for years killing people. Angelus then got cursed by gypsies and received a soul. Moved to America. Brooded and started fighting the good fight. Changed his name to Angel. Fell in love with a vampire slayer. Found out that if he experiences perfect happiness, he’ll revert back to Angelus, something he does not like to happen, more’s the pity,” Eliot added that last part under his breath, “moved to Los Angeles and became the focus of Wolfram & Hart’s existence as he is the key player in the final apocalypse or something, and the firm wants that apocalypse to happen while he is trying everything he can to avoid that ending, hence his asking us for help.”

“Oh!” Parker was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that there were actual vampires running around Los Angeles and that some of them were good. She was somewhat glad that Angel was nothing like that sparkly guy from the movies. She did not like that one at all, no matter what Peggy tried to convince her otherwise. Vampires just did not sparkle!

The trio was sitting at a café not far from Wolfram & Hart’s headquarters. Nate and Sophie were in their second meeting with Gavin Park, attorney par excellence in stupidity and Hardison had his laptop open, waiting for the data link with the flash drive he had supplied Sophie with. Eliot had picked the place since he had received word from Sterling about meeting him and his cronies there, and Eliot wanted to tell his friends about the clones.

“Hello, Spencer.” Speak of the devil!

Eliot looked up to see six Jim Sterlings, all in various kinds of disguise.

“Sterling.” Eliot’s reply was a bit terse.

“What is HE doing here?” Parker turned around and froze. She had never seen so many Sterlings in her life. Not even in the house of mirrors at the carnival when she had thought to annoy Eliot with a life-size cut-out of his arch nemesis. She was, however, not particularly shocked seeing so many copies of the Interpol agent in light of the recent news about the vampires.

“Sterling is…an ongoing Wolfram & Hart project, right?” Eliot was really unsure of how to classify all the copies and therefore looked towards Sterling for help.

“You could say that,” One of the clones replied. It was one Eliot had not met before. But one who shared Sterling and Crowley’s love for well tailored suits, if they were a bit old fashioned.

“Blimey!” One of the clones exclaimed and proceeded to say something neither Eliot nor Parker understood. Hardison was too preoccupied with his computer to notice anything.

“Ah, you have not met them all,” Sterling said as he witnessed the blank looks on their faces, “That is Badger; none of us really understand what he is saying half of the time. This dapper gentleman here is Canton,” he said as he indicated the one in the old fashioned suit, “and the one with the Panama hat is Valda. Eliot has already met Romo and Crowley,” he pointed towards the last two as an explanation for Parker.

“Wow!” was all that Parker said as she took them all in, “why are there so many?”

Sterling glanced at Eliot and received an inscrutable look as a reply. Somehow, Parker did not really understand how, he interpreted it in seconds flat, sat down and proceeded to explain his story to Parker.

“Wolfram & Hart are evil geniuses. You have to understand that before we go any further. They are also megalomaniacs the lot of them.” He shook his head ruefully.

“Okaaaay,” Parker really was not sure what was coming and braced herself against the table.

“Now, I gather you know about the vampires?” At her nod he continued, “Well there are also different dimensions,” he phrased that statement as a question, not knowing how in touch with supernatural things she was.

“Oh, I know about those. I saw a movie!” Parker thought fondly of the spaceship that met the half mechanical humans and the strange bug like creatures that pretended to be humans to fool the people on the spaceship and were trying to kill the mechanical humans. Hardison had been watching it one night and she joined him.

“That was a TV episode Parker,” Apparently Hardison was following their conversation after all, even though he had not commented on the multiple copies of Sterling, or even glanced up from his computer.

“Never mind that,” Sterling did not care if it had been a movie or a TV show, the most important fact was that Parker understood different dimensions, “Well, Wolfram & Hart exist, in one form or another, in all the different dimensions that exist. Most often through agents or spies,” he paused to confirm that she had gotten all of that. When she nodded he continued, “Now, with them being evil megalomaniac geniuses they realized they could not be everywhere at once so they found somebody who was clever and cunning enough to help them throughout all the dimensions. Someone who would fit everywhere they could not be themselves and decided to clone him. So far they have made six copies, and I hope they will not make more.”

“So you guys are the copies? That is just like Rodney and Rod!” Hardison huffed at Parker’s comment. He seemed to disagree but did not say anything.

“Yes, we are. And they stuck us in different dimensions to be their eyes and ears. Badger and Romo live in post-apocalyptic space dimensions, Crowley in a post-apocalyptic USA, Canton lives in the late sixties in a dimension where there is a guy who is fond of time travelling and Valda in a dimension similar to ours where there are artifacts scattered around the earth that have supernatural abilities.”

“It is cool though, isn’t it?” Parker was almost bouncing in her seat and Eliot could easily read from her face that she was raring to go explore these other dimensions.

Sterling and all the copies just stared at her. The others not believing their eyes and ears, while Sterling just smirked.

“Any news?” he asked Eliot.

“They are with Park now; he has more details I assume.” Eliot said and gestured towards Hardison.

Valda, Crowley, Canton, Romo and Badger took that opportunity to leave. It seemed like they had only joined Sterling to meet Eliot. What they were going to do now Eliot did not know nor did he really care. What they did was not his problem.

“Oh my god, it’s really you!” The only reason why Eliot heard that was because he had made it his business to know what was happening around him at any given time. He did not really register that someone was talking to him. “Wick! Wick Lobo! It’s me, Michael Bell!”

Eliot had hoped he would never hear that name ever again. He was not that man anymore and had not been that man for many years.

Michael came into his line of sight since Eliot refused to show any sign of recognition.

“Don’t you remember me?” The guy had an honest-to-god puppy-dog look on his face and was obviously trying his hardest to make Eliot acknowledge him in any way.

“I am sorry, I do not know who you are talking about,” Eliot had put up his blankest expression and hoped that Bell would just leave, “My name is Eliot Spencer.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, man. You look just like this guy I knew. Sorry to bother you” Eliot was surprised that Bell would just walk away, but intensely grateful. He had plenty on his plate right now as it was.

Parker looked at Eliot as Bell walked away. There was obvious puzzlement in her eyes, but now was not the time to tell her anything. For one they were in a café and for another, he was not too keen on having Hardison and Sterling knowing about that part of his past. Even despite this connection he had with Sterling.

Eliot even felt a bit guilty leaving Angel in the dark about Sterling and the clones. But the thing was that Sterling and the other clones were strictly Wolfram & Hart business. As far as he knew, Eliot was not sure that Angel had ever heard about that branch of Wolfram & Hart, or their plan for the clones. And he really wanted to keep it that way. Telling Angel would just complicate everything even more than it already was.

When Sterling had left, satisfied with the information Hardison gave him, Eliot made Parker and Hardison swear not to tell the others about Sterling’s involvement. Hardison gave a noncommittal shrug, but Parker was more enthusiastic about keeping a secret. Especially since it was a secret that Nate and Sophie were not supposed to know.

***

“So?” Angel remarked.

“So, what?” Eliot had forgotten how cryptic Angel could sometimes be.

“New friends, new town, new job?” Eliot figured that being monosyllabic was Angel’s superpower, you know, apart from the whole ‘being a vampire’ thing.

“I had to leave, you know that, man. I could not stay here with Wolfram & Hart on my back. Not after everything that went down.”

“You could not even write?” Angel sounded hurt and bewildered.

Eliot had totally forgotten Angel’s incompetence with technology. Eliot figured that he had been around Hardison too much. There were still people in this world that just did not get technology or what it could do to help you.

“I…” Eliot was somewhat at a loss for words, “Who knows, they could have intercepted your mail. Anyway, I felt it better to make a clean break.”

“We could have set up some sort of a system!” Angel seemed to be getting emotional, and was that not a surprise.

“What do you mean?” Eliot was perplexed at Angel’s sudden involvement in what had happened in the past.

“I don’t know. Messages, symbols, something…”

“Why are you asking this now?” Eliot really wanted to know.

“I…just…Cordy’s been talking.” Angel sounded a bit apologetic at that.

“You are listening to Cordy now? The girl who, in the beginning admittedly, didn’t know anything about running an office or how to answer a goddamned phone?” Eliot did not believe that he was hearing this.

“It makes sense.” Angel’s tone was mulish now.

“Just. Sheez. I had to go. I had to cut all ties with my past and make a new life for myself. Otherwise I would not have survived. You of all people should know what it takes to just up and leave and …”

“Did you ever think of your time here? Of us?” Eliot could have sworn that Angel was pouting.

Since when had Angel turned into a melodramatic bastard? Eliot knew that Angel tended to brood, but this was really taking the cake.

“Do you ever think of your family? The people you have met? Of Buffy?” Eliot knew what the answer to these questions would be. Of course he thought of his past. He thought of all his pasts, even the Wick Lobo past. And that other past he was not mentioning. Thankfully he had changed so much that no one from that past would know him. That is, not unless he started singing. And he was not about to do that any time soon.

“Why now?” He asked Angel again.

“Apocalypse,” Angel answered with a noncommittal shrug.

Eliot would never understand this guy. Not even if he would live for forever. What he wondered was, what was so different about this apocalypse that made Angel so moody. After all had the guy not faced countless apocalypses already?

***

Parker was excited. She was about to go head to head with some really unconventional security measures in a couple of days AND she knew something that neither Nate nor Sophie knew. This was awesome.

She also liked the girl that was on Angel’s team. Even though she did not make any sense to Parker. She had heard the guy with the glasses call the girl ‘Fred’ and apparently she was really good at computers. Just like Hardison. Parker felt a bit bad for thinking that they should maybe switch computer people for a short while, but then she remembered all the cool things that Hardison made and that she had not seen Fred make anything as cool. 

What Angel’s team had that the Leverage team did not was weapons. Maybe that was why Eliot did not like the stuff. Eliot was pretty good at using random things to beat up the marks and their henchmen. She should really ask him if he learned how to fight while he was living in L.A. 

“Are you clear on what you are supposed to do?” A voice broke through her thoughts. Ah, yes, she was going over things with the guy in the glasses.

“Yep. Go in, bypass all the weird security with the help of Hardison and Fred, get the thingamajig and get out as fast as I can.” Even with the weird security, this sounded, and looked like a really routine job. She would just have to be extra careful of monsters and other scary things Wolfram & Hart apparently employed to keep their most prized possessions safe. Not that they were any match for her. She had even gotten some information from the Sterlings, information that she was not supposed to share with anyone but Eliot.

“Good. Excellent. I believe we are ready for Thursday.” The guy with the glasses said with a strange sound to his voice. Parker did not think more of it. She was just excited to start and also lord over Nate and Sophie because she knew a secret.

***

When Eliot got back to the Hyperion there was no one in the lobby area. He heard some sounds from the ballroom upstairs, so he went to check it out. Hoping that the person there was one of the people he cared to talk to instead of one of the people he was trying his best to avoid. He hated to admit it, but some of the people he was avoiding were members of his team. The business with the clones just weighed too heavy on his mind for him to be comfortable around Nate and Sophie. Not to mention his unwillingness to be around Angel. He thanked whatever power there was that Cordy was not around this time.

He reached the ballroom in time to hear Parker cackling. He wondered what it was that she was watching.

“Oooh, he’s about to sing!” Parker exclaimed to no one. She did this regularly, talked to the TV like it was a real person.

“What are you watching?” Eliot asked, glancing at the set-up Hardison had put up in the ballroom. There were eight screens and Parker was watching two things at once it seemed.

“Hey! They have this awesome channel here that only shows the stuff this really cute guy did. This one,” she said as she pointed to the left side of Hardison’s set-up, “is where the guy is in school with all kinds of artist types and this one,” pointing to the right, “is where he’s an amnesiac who’s working in a casino. It’s only one episode and then it’s back to him being a construction worker daddy with a lawyer wife.”

Something about what she was saying jolted Eliot’s memory and he looked more closely at the screens. Oh, HELL NO!

“You know,” Parker said wonderingly, “he looks really familiar.”

What the HELL was Angel playing at? Was this how he spent his time, since he did not sleep and all?

“Eliot?” Parker turned her head when a long forgotten song started playing from the left part of the TV set-up. He had to get out of here. This was a past he had forgotten and didn’t like for it to be dragged up again. Not in this lifetime or any other either. He turned around and all but ran out of the hotel. He had to get away fast.

Parker looked puzzled at Eliot’s sudden departure, but then got intrigued by the music and soon forgot all but what was happening on the TV.

***

Eliot wandered aimlessly around until he realized that he was in front of _Caritas_. Obviously his subconscious knew what he needed.

When he walked in, he did not see Lorne anywhere. But that didn’t mean the green host was not around. 

Like he sensed that there was a troubled soul in his establishment, Lorne appeared as out of nowhere right in front of Eliot.

“Well, well, look who we have here. If it isn’t Wolfram & Hart’s lost soul in the flesh!” Lorne looked him up and down, no doubt cataloguing all the differences in Eliot’s appearance since they last saw each other. When Eliot had been here, troubled by his hand and the evil things it seemed to want to do.

“Hello, Lorne,” Eliot felt uncomfortable. Which, he supposed, was a side effect of being in the company of a demon who could read one’s soul – albeit only when you were singing, but he could read your soul nonetheless.

“I heard that you were in town. Are you going to grace us with those dulcet tones of yours?” Eliot could have sworn that Lorne was itching to listen to him again, and maybe brag about his musical talents. They had once upon a time gotten him that gig on that TV show Parker had been watching after all.

“I don’t know,” Eliot answered truthfully. He was not really sure what he was doing here. Maybe the best thing was for him to get up on that stage and have Lorne read him. 

He nodded.

Lorne almost bounced with glee and headed for the stage to introduce him.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a rare treat today. Back after a prolonged absence, it’s the man with the golden voice, none other than Mr. Lindsey McDonald!”

The audience politely clapped. No one had been in town back then so nobody knew who he was. Lorne was the loudest clapper and when Eliot reached the stage, Lorne handed him a guitar.

_Mama, how's the corn growin' out behind the house?_  
How's that old wind blowin' down south?  
People are different out here  
Like you said they’d be  
But most times the one that feels different  
Is me. 

Eliot sang his heart out. He really missed his home, but he knew that he could never go back. That route was closed to him forever.

When he finished there was dead silence in the room. Then the audience burst out with wild clapping, wilder than he had heard them ever clap for Lorne. He got up off the stool and walked towards Lorne.

“Son, you sure are troubled,” Lorne said with a southern lilt to his voice.

***

Jim Sterling entered the Los Angeles headquarters of Wolfram & Hart. He was no stranger to walking through these doors, but recently he had done it with a heart more heavy each time he walked through. Today was no exception.

It was in his contract to give reports every couple of months, and, as he got more entrenched in the lives of the Leverage crew, the more difficult he found it coming here and telling people what he had experienced and seen. He sort of wished that they could do it themselves, but knew, at the same time, that then Eliot’s life would be in mortal danger. It was only thanks to the protective tattoos and spells he had put on his body and set up around the team that Sterling had a job. The senior partners could not find him, and so had sent Sterling after the team to keep track of their delinquent possession.

He nodded towards the security guards at the front desk. They had seen him often enough to know that he was to go straight up, but he was sure they had no clue whatsoever what his name was or why he was so important. He sometimes imagined their conversation as they let his interviewer know he was here ‘That guy is here…’ He had to amuse himself somehow on the seemingly unending elevator ride.

When he got to the designated floor, he was immediately shown to a conference room by an efficient looking secretary. He had not seen her before, but that did not mean anything. He was sure that his photo had been circled around so the staff knew that he only answered to the higher-ups.

He sat down in a plush armchair. That was new. Maybe the senior partners were changing their interrogation style. Make the victim as comfortable as possible before tearing their head off. Sometimes that last part was not figurative.

Sterling wondered who his interviewer would be this time around. He said interviewer, but meant interrogator. When he had let it slip once, the reception he got was less than welcome. To say that it was frosty as hell would be an understatement. He would love it if Park were the one to walk through that door. That man he could play like a fiddle, which was something he needed to do now. You know, seeing as they were plotting to avoid an apocalypse that the senior partners seemed so hell bent on having.

His luck was not with him today.

“Mr. Sterling! What brings you here today?” Lilah Morgan was dressed impeccably as usual. The smile on her face when she sat down could only be described as the cat that got the cream.

“Figured I should tell you what’s been going on in Boston,” Sterling answered nonchalantly, “I believe that my next scheduled update is upon us. Sorry if I missed the deadline.” He shrugged and tried to look as apologetic as he could. He admired the woman, but he really could not stand her. You had to have balls of steel to reach as high as she had in this company. He knew he was not alone in his opinion, he imagined most of the people at Wolfram & Hart disliked her and he sort of felt sorry for her. Oh, she did not need his pity, but it was there all the same.

After being in the conference room for over an hour, Lilah Morgan realized she was not getting anywhere with this debriefing.

She did not like the person sitting across from her and she would bet almost anything that the feeling was mutual. However, the senior partners seemed very interested in Lindsey McDonald and felt that this guy was the best way to approach the situation. She was not in the position of arguing with them, so she decided that, in order to be in control of the situation, she would be the one handling the reports.

Sterling rattled off cases the crew Lindsey had taken up with had handled out in Boston. There was nothing new to report it seemed. She wished that she could have someone in here to read him, but that was against the senior partners’ wishes and so her hands were tied.

She tried to use what she had learned in reading body language, but it was futile. The man was like an impenetrable fortress. His face showed no emotion and his body was like the one of a statue. Bloody senior partners, they had made this one damn near perfect. It was way easier to deal with the other copies. Too bad they did not have the job of looking over Lindsey McDonald.

***

Sterling breathed easier when he exited the doors of that immense building. He was free for three more months at least. Hopefully he would be free forever, if their plan went as envisioned.

Now, though, he needed a drink and he knew exactly where he could find one; a place where he would not be around the clones, a place where everybody was welcome, friend or foe, a place where no one was judged.

Fifteen minutes later Jim Sterling walked into _Caritas_. The place was bustling as usual and some guy was crooning into the microphone, singing about his mother. Oedipus complex waiting to happen, Sterling thought.

He sat down at the bar, waved the bartender and turned around to listen to Lorne’s current lab rat. The guy had a pretty good voice and Sterling wondered what Lorne would make of this poor sod’s choice of song and performance.

The guy, who had been bent over his guitar so you could not see his face, finished his song and stood up. The crowd was silent for a moment until they burst out clapping and gave a standing ovation, something that was not a regular occurrence at _Caritas_.

Sterling did not register anything after the guy had stood up. He was frozen. Of all the gin joints in all of the towns, he had to walk into the one place where Eliot Spencer was singing his heart out to a demon from another dimension. Something big must have happened for Eliot to put himself on display like that.

Sterling made a move to stand up, but thought better of it when he saw the host step up to Eliot and gather him close.

Yes, something real big was going on.

***

Romo, Crowley and Canton sat around the living room in the apartment Sterling had secured for them. Valda was out, exploring he said, but the trio was sure he was trying to find some artifacts for his warehouse. They did not know where Badger was, and frankly, Crowley did not care. That guy was strange, too strange for Crowley’s tastes.

“Are you coming with us once this business is over?” Romo asked Canton. He liked the fellow. Time travelling would be an asset on Galactica and if he could persuade Canton and his time travelling friend to come over to his dimension, things might become a lot different for the blasted machines.

“On your trip, you mean?” Canton liked his fellow clones. It was refreshing to meet so many different copies of himself and see what they had done with the hand that the senior partners had dealt them. Oh, he had his opinions of them all, like he was sure the others had, but they were a fun bunch of people to hang out with.

Crowley grunted. This dimension was way too relaxing for him. He had not quite realized how stressful his life was until he experienced this. He would have to take more vacations away from Sam and Dean and their infuriating angel that much was certain.

“Yes, on our trip.” Romo surfed through the channels and stopped on a show where a computer geek was hanging around with some cool FBI people.

“Oh, that looks good. And, who knows what will happen.” Canton settled in to watch the show. If they survived it might be fun to see this earth.

***

Parker loved this channel thingamajig. The shows and movies were awesome, and it did not hurt that they all had the same guy. She wondered why the sad guy had this channel; they sure did not have it in Boston. Maybe she ought to ask Hardison how they could add this one to their package.

She had finished everything that was on the channel thanks to Hardison’s TV screen set-up and decided to see who else was around. No one had come into the ballroom except Eliot and he had run out of there like a bat out of hell.

When she got down to the lobby area of the hotel, (and how cool was it that this crew worked out of a hotel?) she did not see anyone. She was momentarily bummed, but decided to pretend that the lobby was a security vault with lasers and heat sensors and that she had to get from the stairs to the check-in desk and then over to the front door in under a minute or else she would be discovered and sent to jail (which, in her mind looked like a clothes store) for the rest of her life with no chance of parole, ever.

***

Eliot felt marginally better after talking to Lorne. What he had said was not anything new to Eliot, but it felt good to get confirmation that what he had been going through was to be expected of a man in his position and that his feelings were justified – so to speak.

When Lorne had left him to go help another poor schmuck, Eliot went up to the bar. He really needed a drink right about now.

“Didn’t expect to see you here,” came a voice to his left. Eliot looked over and silently cursed. His mama would have rinsed his mouth with soap if she had been here and he had uttered what he thought out loud. What the fuck was Sterling doing at _Caritas_?

“I bet you’re wondering what I’m doing here. Well, I wouldn’t blame you. I just needed a friendly space after the meeting I just had, and _Caritas_ has always been a friendly space.” Sterling sipped his drink, which was, conveniently, hidden in a porcelain mug with the slogan _Best Demon Lover in any Dimension_.

‘He would be a person to get Lorne’s favorite mug,’ Eliot thought, ‘must be close to the guy then’.

“Oh, you had your scheduled interview today then? How’d it go?” Eliot asked nonchalantly and tossed back the drink the bartender put in front of him.

“Got Morgan.” Sterling stared into his cup and did not say anything else. Those two words were plenty enough and told an epic story to those who knew the game.

“Ouch! She’s a real ball buster, that’s for sure. She suspect anything?” Eliot felt sorry for the man. Lilah was really perfect for the job. She was way more ruthless than he ever could aspire to be which was one of the reasons why he had left the firm and given up the position they were both aiming for. He had realized that he had nothing to do at Wolfram and Hart; he did not have the passion for the job like Lilah had. 

“Nah, I doubt it. You know, I **am** wise to her ways. I’ve dealt with her before. Plus, I plan on confounding them even more when it’s time for Parker to get into the vault. She will not see it coming.” Sterling finished his drink and waved to the bartender for a refill. At last Eliot would find out what the man was drinking. He almost held his breath, but it was to no avail as the bartender pulled out a nondescript opaque bottle and made sure that the contents were poured straight into the mug by putting the mouth of the bottle in the mug so that whatever Sterling was drinking was never visible to the onlooker. 

‘Foiled again!’ Eliot thought depressingly. He had known the man for a long time, but had never figured out if Sterling was drinking alcohol or something else. Eliot knew he was a private man, but this was really taking the cake. Why could Sterling not trust Eliot with this facet of his life, you know, after everything that had happened between them?

***

D-day dawned bright and early.

Eliot and Angel were, even though they would never admit it, nervous that the plan might fail. Eliot knew that his team was the best team there was and that the people involved in this operation were prepared for everything. Angel knew that if Lindsey trusted these people, one should not take that fact lightly and that the odds were in favor of them and their plan. He just wished that the day was over and they could get on to the celebration.

Parker was excited. She had and would never go up against such security measures ever again. Her skin itched with the excitement of showing those meanies that nothing was impervious to the skill of the world’s greatest Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief and Mastermind as well as some choice clones, a vampire and some really kick-ass people. This day was going to be awesome!

***

Sterling and the others sat around the breakfast table in their apartment. Nobody was listening to Badger, but he did not seem annoyed by the fact. He knew that they all had things on their minds. He just chose to relieve the tension by talking about his arch rivals, none of which the others had ever met.

“I’ve already given my statement. Got Morgan,” Sterling looked over the group, this time together had been fun, in a way, “so if you all go in for your statements at around the time Parker will be in the vault, it will hopefully distract them enough. I mean, they can’t have you all meeting each other and thinking that something must be up, now can they?”

“Well, at least that bitch can’t be in many places at the same time,” Crowley almost cackled with glee. If there was anyone he disliked as much as the Winchesters it was Lilah Morgan. He was sort of hoping that she would consider him enough of a priority that she would handle his interview. After all, he **was** the king of hell. 

“Thank the Lords of Kobol for that,” Romo said while the others had chorused some version of that phrase, depending on their programmed beliefs and dimensions.

Outside of their little group, only Eliot knew of their plan. Sterling knew that Nate and Angel had asked Eliot how that part of the master plan was going to be covered. Eliot had no remorse in telling them that they did not have to worry about it. Sterling admired Eliot’s loyalty and how he shielded those he cared about from difficult truths, even though he was one of those difficult truths.

“This is going to be fun!” Crowley spoke what they all had been thinking. If they had been other people, they would have given each other high-fives. As it was, they just smiled and prepared for the day.

***

Parker looked up at the Los Angeles headquarters of Wolfram and Hart (Interdimensional). She seized it up like it was an actual adversary and then bowed.

“It will be fun beating you, you scumbag!” she muttered. She had seen and studied the blueprints both Gunn and Sterling had supplied her with, but there was just something about looking your enemy in the face and knowing that, in a short while, you would best them at their own game.

She turned around and went across the street. She knew enough that it would be impossible for her to go straight at the building. With enemies like this, you had to use their operational methods and go into _super-sneaky_ mode.

This promised to be a lot of fun.

***

The offices were in uproar. Every department head knew that the time for debriefing the clones was fast approaching. They never knew exactly when those debriefings happened as the clones had a set time frame they could use to their convenience. Apparently, they had all chosen today to show up and there was a mad scramble to keep them all from each other. They had to pull in interviewers from other departments since Lilah Morgan could not do everything herself, and Park was occupied with a couple from Boston, doing god knows what Park did in such interviews.

Everyone was tense and people snapped at each other for no reason. Tempers were high and emotions were frayed. Something like this had never happened before and mistakes were being made.

The security guards had trouble just dealing with the hyperactive staff that they did not pay close enough attention to the monitors and the security protocols guarding the vault.

It was a thief’s playground.

***

Parker was finally through all the security hoops Wolfram & Hart had put on the vault and the secret thingamajig was somewhere around here. She had a reference number for the position it was stored and according to the blueprint she had studied it should be to the left of her current location. She had time though, to look around. This place held all kinds of good stuff.

There was a table in front of her, just an ordinary table, but it had the prettiest looking pyramid she had ever seen. She lifted it up. It was made from pure silver. It would look really good on her nightstand.

After putting the pyramid in her bag, she was sure the brooding man would not mind her taking some extra payment from the bad guys, she turned around to look for what she was supposed to steal. When she had found the number she had been given, she did a double take and could not believe her eyes. There, in a refrigerator type thing, was Sterling, or, you know, a guy that looked exactly like Sterling. 

There was a nameplate on the box, but Parker did not stop to read it. He was the secret thingamajig that would end the world if he was left in the possession of Wolfram and Hart and she was supposed to bring him back to the hotel. Problem was, how was she supposed to get him out? Even though this guy was short, he was probably way too heavy for her to carry. She needed Eliot…

***

“Are you out of your goddamn mind, Parker?” Eliot’s voice almost screamed in her ear. “You want me to just sidle in to the headquarters of the people who are after my life and get some guy out of a freezer?”

“It’s Sterling!” She hoped that that fact would hold some sway over her friend. She knew that it was seriously dangerous for him to even be near the building, but she did not know what else to do.

“It’s not Sterling, it’s the guy who Sterling is cloned from,” Eliot answered exasperated.

“Whatever! But you know how much Sterling doesn’t want this guy to be cloned again and if he stays here…” Parker was not sure how to finish the sentence.

“Fine! I’ll see what I can do. Just…hang on, OK?” Eliot always had a difficult job denying Parker things. He motioned Fred and Gunn over, since he could not go, he would have to send the best replacement team he had.

***

They were back at the Hyperion. The guy Parker said was the thing Angel wanted them to rescue was thawing out in a room upstairs. Eliot paced the floor of the lobby, waiting for news from Nate and Sterling. Sure, they had gotten out alright and with the guy, but he would not rest easy unless he knew that all parts of the plan had gone off without a hitch.

Lorne walked in the doors, surveyed the scene and headed straight for the liquor cabinet to pour everyone something to drink. He briefly wondered where the brooding leader of the Hyperion crew was, but thought nothing more on the subject. It was obvious that Lindsey was quietly freaking out.

“Here, drink this!” he handed Eliot, Parker, Fred and Gunn each a glass and drowned one himself. “How did it go?” he asked no one in particular.

Parker was not sure what to make of this guy. Had he had himself tattooed green and made someone put horns on his head or was he from some other dimension? None of the others seemed disturbed by his appearance, but she was not there yet.

“I kung-fu’ed those ‘security measures’,” Parker boasted and performed a kung-fu move to really make it clear how totally awesome she felt about that. She had done good, no matter what.

“We did our part, now we’re waiting on news from the others,” Gunn answered. He did not need to explain to Lorne that Angel was out patrolling. Even though Lorne had never been a part of the plan, he knew everything about it.

“Well, he will live. Although I am not quite sure when he will awake or in what state he will be when he does.” Wesley walked down the stairs from where he had been checking up on their frozen friend. “Ah, Lorne,” he said when he saw the demon, “you’ve arrived at the most opportune time to receive all the news.”

“Who will live?” Lorne was utterly perplexed. It seemed that the guests from back East brought plenty of mysteries with them. He had seen some of it when Lindsey sang in _Caritas_ the other night.

“It seems we’re in the business of saving gentlemen in distress,” Eliot said mulishly. He was still somewhat annoyed at Angel for tricking them into rescuing the guy, even though he knew that this guy was apparently some vital instrument in an apocalypse.

“There was this guy, he looks exactly like Sterling, and they just kept him frozen!” Parker was outraged at injustice the guy had suffered, “so she and he,” she pointed towards Fred and Gunn, “came in and helped me carry him out of there!”

“And who is this guy?” Lorne did not quite grasp the situation. Parker’s explanation did nothing for his comprehension.

“He’s Sterling!” Parker felt that this was explanation enough.

“Someone who is the spitting image of their arch nemesis it seems,” Gunn commented, “although, since he is the arch nemesis, I have no clue why we were rescuing him.” Parker and Eliot had not told him that the guy was the object Angel had asked them to steal.

Eliot had not really paid close attention what they were talking about, his comment earlier had not so much been an answer to Lorne as a general comment to himself and the room about the job. 

He marveled though at Parker’s transformation from the time they had first met. Gone was the social misfit of old and instead was a woman who was passionate about those who were underdogs of life in any shape or form. He wondered what the old Parker would think of this version.

***

Angel was patrolling like Gunn had implied to Lorne.

He was in a building across from Wolfram and Hart, ostentatiously supervising the operation, but in reality he was more brooding about the operation than paying close attention to what was happening.

He had seen all the copies walk into the building and wondered briefly what it meant, but his mind turned back to what was happening underground quickly enough. 

He wondered how Parker was doing with all the security features. He knew that Lindsey trusted the thief inexplicably, but he could not help but wonder if that trust had come about in a different way than just observing her operate. 

Angel knew, deep down, that he had no claims on Lindsey or his time anymore, but the fact that the man had come back here despite the risks it meant for him, had to mean something. He thought about the bond Lindsey had with Parker and Hardison, and even Nate and Sophie too, come to think about it. It seemed like Lindsey had found a family. He was glad that it had happened, but at the same time a bit sad that it had not happened while Lindsey lived in Los Angeles.

Angel shook his head to stop himself from going further down that mental road and turned his thoughts back to Parker and the vault. She had not the experience he and the others had with supernatural things, but he hoped that things were going well and that she would make it out of there in one piece and with what he sought after.

***

When Nate and Sophie walked into the Hyperion, Eliot relaxed. Things had gone off without a hitch, then, since they were not being held by Lilah.

He looked around, finally paying attention to his surroundings. He chuckled when he saw that Parker had grabbed Fred and they were dancing around in some sort of victory dance he supposed. Lorne had a bottle of whisky by his elbow on the check-in counter and Gunn and Hardison were deep in conversation about something. Wesley had walked over to Nate and Sophie and was probably finding out how things had gone at Wolfram and Hart. 

The only one missing now was Angel.

Eliot felt a presence behind him and turned around. Speak of the devil indeed. Angel was back. Now they could do a full debriefing.

“Excellent, you are back,” Wesley said and motioned the others to take a seat.

“I see that you all made it out OK,” Angel said as he sat down. He could not help his gaze lingering on Lindsey for a few seconds.

“Yes! And we got the thing,” Parker had taken her little pyramid out of her bag and was playing with it.

Before Angel could answer, the front door opened and Sterling walked through.

“Well, would you look at that, the whole Scooby gang back together – and a few friends too, it seems,” he sneered. The aim was to not let Nate and Sophie figure out that he had a closer connection with the case than it seemed.

“You’re talking about the wrong people,” Angel commented sarcastically but no one paid close attention to what he was saying.

“Sterling! What are you doing here?” Nate was both bewildered and annoyed. Why could the man not leave them alone?

“Didn’t you know that I am a Wolfram and Hart concern, just like Eliot and Angel? Aw, poor Nate, being kept in the dark like that, whatever is the world coming to?” Sterling was enjoying himself. Parker had told him how annoying Nate could be when he did not disclose all the details to a plan they were supposed to follow.

Everybody was staring at Sterling except Eliot and Angel. The former was watching the latter as he stared into his hands, deep in thought.

Angel seemed completely unaware of the sudden tension in the room at the surprise arrival of Sterling. Only Eliot knew that this was not the case. Angel knew very well what was happening around him, and somehow he was not totally surprised by the appearance of Sterling. Whatever could he be hiding? 

“Sterling, I have a surprise for you!” Parker suddenly exclaimed and ran upstairs. 

The others stood or sat around in an uncomfortable silence.

After a while they could hear Parker coming back. Apparently their frozen friend was now awake and had been persuaded to come with her.

“Wait here till I say, OK?” Parker said and then bounded down the stairs.

“Close your eyes,” she told the room, and most of them complied. Eliot did not. He saw Parker motion towards her friend and he walked unsteadily down the stairs. Eliot figured that his muscles might be a bit unused to movement after many years as a Popsicle. When he had reached the bottom of the stairs, but not made it down the steps from the door platform, Parker motioned him to stop and told everyone that they could now open their eyes.

There was a loud gasp, that Eliot supposed came from Nate and Sophie. He saw no surprise in Angel’s face, which was interesting and relief in Sterling’s face.

“He is what I wanted you to get,” Angel said for the benefit of the rest of the room.

***

Turns out that the guy was named Cecil L'Ively and was a mutant of some sorts. Or that is what Eliot gathered from the cacophony of noise that erupted immediately after Angel’s statement. Whether the guy was an X-Men mutant or not, Eliot was not sure, but he was certain that it was the reason why Wolfram and Hart had kept him frozen and cloned him. Although it seemed that they had not managed to clone the mutant gene, which was undoubtedly what they had been after in the first place.

When things had quieted down, Angel confirmed Eliot’s suspicions and explained why he had wanted L’Ively free.

“They were close to finding out how to manipulate his pyrokinesis gene and create a mutant that had even more powers than Cecil.”

“Would he have had Wolverine claws?” Parker asked enthusiastically, she was immensely interested in Wolverine and had pestered the team to sit through all the X-Men films, the Wolverine film and the X-Men prequel, even though the character had only appeared for a short while in that last film. Eliot was sure they would have to see the next Wolverine film, probably the day it was released.

“I don’t know, but thankfully we don’t have to find out, since Cecil is here now.”

Nate and Sophie did not say much, Eliot figured they were still stunned by the fact that there were two copies of Sterling in the room. He sort of wanted the rest of the clones to show up to shock them more. It served Nate right to be kept in the dark for once, after all the times he had let them suffer the same fate.

Suddenly there was a commotion at the door and Eliot got his wish. 

There was a thud and Eliot turned around to see that Sophie had fainted. 

“Nate, I believe you haven’t met the others,” Sterling smiled. Things were finally getting good.

Eliot nodded towards the clones. It was unreal seeing seven copies of the same man, all in the same room. 

The clones gathered around L’Ively and spoke in hushed tones. What they were talking about, Eliot had no idea, but he figured it had something to do with their common interest. He looked around the room once more. Only Sophie had fainted, Nate showed signs of distress, but they seemed to be the only ones affected by the appearance of the _Sterling Army_. None of the others seemed especially interested in the clones, Angel looked almost bored. Now was that not an interesting fact?

***

Angel, apparently, had known of the clones from some Wolfram and Hart papers that Angel Investigations had gotten hold of through some very shady routes. What he had not known was that all the clones had gathered in the city to help with the liberation of L’Ively.

He was not too happy with Eliot keeping the clones a secret, but could, grudgingly, admit that it was a good idea to bring them in. Otherwise they might not have succeeded.

A ray of sun flashed off of Parker’s little toy and caught Wesley’s eye.

“What do you have there?” He reached for the artifact and looked closely at it. The pyramid had something written on all sides in a language they did not understand.

“Just something I got from the vault. I thought it looked cool,” Parker said nonchalantly. She was not about to tell the whole group that she wanted it for her place as payment for services rendered.

“Let me see it,” Crowley said and after looking at the thing for a second a satisfied smirk appeared on his face. Eliot could have sworn that if he had been a cartoon character, a light bulb would have appeared over his head. It was that kind of a moment. “It’s Enochian,” he finally proclaimed, “but I don’t know what these scribbles are,” he said and pointed to something at the bottom of the pyramid.

“Can I see?” Romo asked. After a while he too got the light bulb over his head. “That’s from Kobol. I’ve seen those markings before.”

Valda butted in and looked at the artifact. “Now would you look at that, a key to an old Warehouse, right there, in front of us. That’s amazing.”

Badger and Canton had nothing to add. The thing held absolutely no significance to them. Not like it did to the other clones. And Sterling had no clue about it.

Eliot thought it remarkable that such a small thing could be something so important to guys from three different dimensions. He also thought that the fact that Wolfram and Hart had it in their vault had to mean something. Maybe they were plotting the apocalypse in four dimensions, instead of just this one. And was that not a scary thought?

***

It was the day after the big coup. The Leverage team was heading out on Sunday, Romo, Crowley and Canton were leaving for Europe on the same day and the other clones were heading off to their respective places about that time.

Eliot was not too keen on hanging around the Hyperion, there were too many people hanging about, so he asked Parker what she would like to do. Nate and Sophie had gone shopping and Hardison had gotten in touch with a friend he knew over the internet. Eliot was not too sure what they were doing, but then again, he did not want to know.

“I know what I want to do!” Parker exclaimed after taking some time to think about what she would like to do.

“And what is that?” Eliot asked good-humouredly. A day spent with Parker, just the two of them, was almost always a recipe for something exciting. Sometimes it was hair-raising, and not in a very good way, but the majority of times it was exhilarating fun. She always thought of something interesting, and if he had done it before, she made it into a totally different experience.

“This!” she said and waved a brochure in front of his face. “I **really** want to go, Eliot!”

When Eliot looked down on the paper, he saw a picture of the Hollywood sign and a hot air balloon, this ought to be interesting.

***

“What do you think the thingamajig is supposed to do in the other dimensions?” Parker asked Eliot as they were floating past Beverly Hills. She was trying to figure out who lived in which mansion, although she had no clue who the celebrities were, she just made up names and careers.

“I have no clue. And I don’t know if we’ll ever get the chance to find out. There’s not much chance of dimension travelling in our daily life.”

“Sadly. I would so love to go to Romo’s world. Just imagine it. Space travel!” Parker said dreamily, “and the angels and demons in Crowley’s world. I think that would be cool.”

“We’ll just have to hope that we’ll get news, from Angel or Sterling,” Eliot said with a hint of sadness in his voice. He had nothing against adventures into different realms, but as he had said, it was highly unlikely that they would ever get the chance. 

“Yeah, but I’m gonna ask Santa if we can go!” Parker enthused.

“Parker, Christmas is a long ways away,” Eliot said, somewhat exasperatedly. He was not going to go into the debate about the reality of Santa once more. She had been totally and utterly distraught the one time Hardison had hinted that the man was just a fable. It was better to keep the peace and let her have her beliefs.

“But I can still ask him. If I ask him now, he’ll have more time to prepare and the more time you have to prepare something, the more awesome it will be!” Parker said decidedly.

Eliot just nodded. He was not getting into that war zone. He had experienced plenty of them in the past and there was one just waiting for him at the Hyperion for when he returned. A war zone named Angel and Sterling. He wondered what they could do after their balloon ride; he would do anything to postpone going back to the hotel…well, almost anything.

***

Saying goodbye was a relief, but also somewhat bittersweet. They had gone through a lot in the past week, together and apart, but even though they had not been together for the whole time, it had brought them closer than they had been before. Parker had made friends with all the clones and could even understand Badger. Eliot figured it was because of the weirdness factor they both shared.

L’Ively had been given a new name and an occupation. He was now called Mark Sheppard and was an actor. He would stay in Los Angeles so he could be under the protection of Angel Investigations. Badger and Valda were returning to their respective dimensions but promised to keep in touch with each other and also the other clones. Parker was included in this very special circle of friends. The clones promised to keep in touch with the Leverage crew when they went in for debriefing.

Sterling was staying a bit longer in Los Angeles. He said he had business with Lorne and was going to check what effect their heist had on Wolfram and Hart. Eliot could not say that he was sad to see Sterling stay behind. He just hoped that he and Angel would get into a serious discussion about him.

Angel had tried to get Eliot alone, but the latter had done his utmost to not be alone with the vampire for long. He was not too keen on rehashing the past and old arguments, follies or emotions. What was in the past should stay there. He was the expert on leaving things be, whether they were buried deep or just under the surface. He believed that everybody deserved a fresh start and he hoped that Angel would realize that soon enough.

Hopefully they could meet again and be rid of this baggage; as friends.

***

When they arrived in Boston, they each went to their respective places and promised to meet up again in McRory’s bar in two days, when they had all slept off the jet lag and dealt with the aftermath of the heist.

When it was time to meet up again, Eliot was the last one to arrive. Cora was the only one in the bar and told him that shortly after Parker had arrived, they had all decamped to Nate’s apartment.

When he arrived on Nate’s floor, he heard them laughing all the way from the elevator. He wondered what it was that was so funny.

When he walked in the door, he wished that he hadn’t. This was not something that he had wanted to happen. He was going to kill everyone at Angel Investigations as well as Parker. This was just not on.

Parker had obviously gotten copies of the stuff she had been watching in the ballroom of the Hyperion and now his past was plastered over the eight TV screens that usually served as Hardison’s computer monitor. It looked like they were watching a different thing on each screen. He did not understand how they could pay attention to what was happening on each screen, but it seemed like they had divided the screens between them and requested the others’ attention when something good happened on _their_ screens. This had to be confusing.

When they noticed him, they did not say much, just motioned for him to join them. Eliot was hesitant at first, but when he saw that they were genuinely interested in what was happening on the screens, and not laughing derisively, he figured that it might not be too bad to delve into his past and look at what he had once been, what he had once done. Not if they, his family, enjoyed it as much as they seemed to do.

***

Six months later they were back in business. Sterling was back in Boston being a royal pain in their sides and the underdogs of Boston’s society had someone to come to if they were being swindled in some way. The Leverage crew was back to being good-bad guys and they had tried to put what had happened in Los Angeles behind them. There were times, every now and then that they stopped and thought about the evil law firm and what they had done to that poor man. They sometimes saw him on television and silently cheered him on when they did. But that time was not an active part of their life anymore. They sometimes wondered if it was all a dream.

It was on a quiet Thursday, after they had finished a particularly brutal heist that had resulted in some casualties, such as Eliot’s broken arm and the loss of Nate’s whisky stash that the phone rang. 

Nobody reached for the phone, they all just looked at each other and a sense of foreboding ran down their spines. They were frozen like statues and couldn’t move a muscle. 

“You’ve reached Leverage Consulting and Associates, please leave a message and a phone number and we will get in touch with you. Thank you.” There was a beep after the answering machine message.

“This is Crowley, we need your help with the artifact, in all three places. Call Sterling.”

It seemed like Santa had fulfilled Parker’s wish after all

THE END


End file.
